Seventeen Deaths

Seventeen Deaths

     Lemmok got on one knee and slightly leaned over the body of Brandov. He used his eyes and upper body to examine Brandov from every possible angle. A few minutes later he looked up at Commander Windime and Pavicca. “What number does this make?”

     “Brandov makes Sixteen.” Pavicca looked at Windime before answering Lemmok’s question. “This is the sixteenth death like this in the last twenty days.”

     “I knew it was bad, but not this bad.” Lemmok got up still looking at Brandov. “Still no knowledge of how this is happening or why?”

     Windime never took her eyes off Brandov. “That’s why I asked Lemmok to help us. I want these deaths stopped, and since you haven’t been able to do it, I thought maybe someone else could stop them.”

     “Don’t need any help.” Pavicca looked over at Health Specialist Graivel as he entered and started examining Brandov too. “I can stop these deaths myself.”

     “I don’t think you can either.” Graivel looked up at Pavicca. “That’s why I suggested that Commander Windime ask my old friend Lemmok for help.”

##

     Brandov floated down a corridor at hip level. Lemmok and Graivel were walking beside Brandov’s shoulders while Windime and Pavicca walked next to his knees. “What is he doing here?” Pavicca asked.

     “I know you have asked him to help with these deaths.” Pavicca kept her eyes straight ahead too. “What is he doing on this spaceship? I know he’s Head of Protection, and on his way to his new spaceship, but why are we taking them there.”

     Windime looked at Pavicca. “I know a few other ships could take him to his new spaceship, but Graivel isn’t his only friend. That’s why we are taking him there.”

     “I know why you are doing this. You still don’t think you need any help with the deaths on our spaceship.”

     "No, I don’t Commander.” Pavicca looked at Lemmok. “What can you do that I haven’t already done?”

     Lemmok smiled as the turned his head toward Pavicca. “I think I already know who has been causing these deaths. Just don’t know how they have done it or why yet.”

##

     “Thanks for your help.” Lemmok got up and escorted that female crewmember to the entrance into that small room. “Can you please send in the next crewmember?”

     “Yeah, sure. I guess I can do that. Still don’t know why I was asked to come here.” That crewmember left. A few seconds later another female came in and sat down in a chair across from Lemmok.

     Pavicca stood right next to Lemmok. “I don’t understand what you’re doing either. What does talking to these crewmembers have to do with our deaths?”

     “I’m talking to the crewmembers who knew the ones who have been killed. Trying to find out why they have been killed. Knowing that will help me to figure out how they were killed.”

     “Almost everyone on this spaceship knew at least one of them who has been killed.” Pavicca sat in a chair next to Lemmok. “Are you going to talk to all of them?”

     Lemmok looked at Pavicca. “If that’s what it takes to figure out what is really going on here, that is what I will do.”

##

     Walking down a long constantly curving corridor, Lemmok and Pavicca nob as two different Alien races talking to each other walk by them. They both nodded back as they continued their walk. “At first, I thought what was going on here was Alien related. It still could be, but I no longer think that it is.”

     “Most of us on this spaceship are humans.” Lemmok watched the Aliens as they turned around the corner of that corridor. “There are also twenty-two other races here. What makes you so sure it’s not one or more of them causing these deaths.”

     “Like I just said, I thought it was probably at least one of them. So, I checked them out. Now I don’t think they are causing these deaths.”

     Lemmok stopped walking and looked at Pavicca. “You are right about one thing, though. It’s not one of the Alien races on this spaceship, but someone here is doing these killings, and I know who that someone is.”

     “Oh, really. Who do you think is behind these deaths?”

##

     After Lemmok walked past an entrance it slid open a little. Just enough for the end of a weapon to come out of it slightly. A weapon that continuously was pointing at Lemmok. Until Lemmok suddenly stopped. Lemmok looked behind him. The end of the weapon quickly was pulled back.

     A few seconds later Lemmok shrugged his shoulders and started to turn back to face forward. Before Lemmok could start walking again, the end of the weapon reappeared. Out the end of that weapon, a small thin red glowing tube came out of it. That tube struck Lemmok in the back of his neck.

     Lemmok fell forward. As his lifeless-looking body hit the level he was on, the entrance where the weapon was opened. Whoever was holding that weapon used it to go toward Lemmok. Constantly pointing all around it until it got to his body.

     Still using the weapon as a pointer, whoever held it used it to scan the body from head to foot. Satisfied with the results of the scan, the weapon returned to the entrance it came from. When the entrance closed the name of where that entrance led was revealed. It was ‘Commander Windime.’

####

     Two crewmembers turned a corner in that corridor and stopped when they saw Lemmok. While Vincina checked his body for signs of life, Florim slowly scanned the area with his eyes. “No life in his neck, but I got a faint life sign from his wrist.”

     Florim walked over to the nearest wall and tapped it once. The whole wall in that Corridor started pulsating a light blue color with waving lines going through it. “Near death in Corridor One.”

     “Is it Commander Windime?” An image of Graivel came out of the wall.

     “No, it’s Lemmok.” Florim stepped out of the way so that Graivel could see him.

     Graivel stepped out of the wall and his image walked over to where Lemmok was. He leaned over Lemmok and started checking him out. “Help is on the way. Do you have any idea how long he’s been like this?”

     Vincina stepped aside when Graivel got to Lemmok. “Don’t know, but it was within the last four hours. That was the last time we were in this area.”

##

     Lemmok sat up in his Health Sleeper and slowly looked around him. “What happened?”

     Graivel, Windime, and Pavicca stood next to his Sleeper. “What’s the last thing you remember?” Graivel asked while he got him to lie back down again.

     I remember leaving Commander Windime and Pavicca after telling them what I had been able to find out with these deaths, and I was walking down the Corridor next to Command Central. The next thing I know I was waking up here and asking what happened.”

     “Someone tried to kill you. It wasn’t like the other deaths recently, though. This time they used a red glowing tube to do it.” Pavicca held up that tube between two fingers. It was no longer red or glowing. Now, it was just a gray tube.

     Lemmok smiled. “Someone thinks I’m getting too close to figuring out how these deaths have been happening. I can use that to my advantage.”

     “Do you know how it’s being done yet?” Windime asked.

     “I know what is causing these deaths. Just not sure how it’s doing it yet.”

##

     Pavicca grabbed a long thin hollow tube from Lemmok. “Are you sure you want to do this?”

     “I’m sure. It’s the fastest way to figure out who has been causing these deaths. Once I know that, I will know why they are doing it.”

     “Thought you already knew who was doing the killing. Have you changed your mind about that?” Windime asked from his Command Chair in Command Central.

     Lemmok took the tube back from Pavicca. “No, I still know who has been doing it. Now I know how it’s being done. Don’t know why yet. That’s why I need to do it this way.”

     “I want to say I’m very sorry to everyone on this spaceship.” Lemmok started speaking after placing that tube up to his mouth. “Now, I know it wasn’t anyone here who has been causing these deaths lately.”

     “It’s a light green mist that has been floating around this spaceship. Unseeable until now by me. Now that I know who is behind these deaths, I can find out how it has been happening and why.”

##

     Slowly, Lemmok and Pavicca walked down one of the Corridors on that spaceship. Pavicca constantly looked around him. “I don’t see any mist. How come you can see it, but no one else can?”

     “The planet I’m from is Reatus. You probably heard about the experiments on some of their Protection Professionals. I’m one of them.”

     “One of those experiments was to give us the ability to see the unseeable. This is my first chance I have had to use this experiment.”

     Lemmok suddenly stopped walking and pointed up at nothing. “There it is.”

     “Any ideas how it got on our spaceship?” Pavicca stopped too.

     “That’s one of the questions I’m going to ask once I get it. Just not sure how I’m going to do that yet.”

     Lemmok kept staring at that mist as he started walking toward it. He stopped just before getting to it and smiled. “I know how I can get it. It’s another experiment I haven’t used until now.”

     Pavicca stayed where they were. “Are you sure there’s something there? I still don’t see anything.”

##

     The mist floated between the outstretched palms of Lemmok. When Lemmok started to close his hands into a slap, the mist got thinner too. It started screaming. “Tell me what I want to know, and this will all be over.” Lemmok got closer to a slap. The screaming got louder.

     “What do you want to know?” The mist asked.

     Lemmok moved his hands away from each other slightly. “I want to know how you have been causing these deaths.”

     “All they needed to do is walk through me, and they were dead. They just didn’t know it for several hours.”

     “Were they opportunity kills or were they selected ones?” Lemmok started slapping again when the mist didn’t answer him.

     The mist finally answered after it stopped screaming. “They were selected.”

     “Who selected them for you?” Lemmok released the tightness between his hands again.

     “I can’t tell you that. She will kill me if I do.”

     Lemmok looked at Pavicca standing. “No, she won’t. I already know it was Pavicca who has been doing these deaths. Just didn’t know how until now.

##

     Pavicca walked down a curving Corridor with Lemmok right beside her. Her hands were behind her back with her elbows touching each other. The new Head of Protection, Cothim, on that spaceship, was walking on the other side of her. “Why did you kill them?”

     “It’s because of you. I knew Commander Windime and Graivel knew you. When I heard you were coming here as Head of Protection, I thought I was being replaced.”

     “I started doing them to show them I could still be the Head of Protection on this spaceship. By the time I found out I wasn’t being replaced, it was too late.”

     Lemmok looked at Pavicca. “Why did you continue killing them and why did you kill these individuals?”

     “The same reason I continued killing them. They were lazy, always causing trouble, and they should never have been on this spaceship.”

     “I didn’t think I touched the mist. It looks like you aren’t going to be the only one replaced as Head of Protection.” Lemmok fell to the ground. Just looking at him and Pavicca and Cothim could see he was dead too.

The Word Count is 1,995